Friday, December 13, 2013

An LP on the Fontana label from 1966. More MOR than other LP's I have of his band. A nostalgic favourite that reminds me of Sunday roast dinners with my parents when I was young. Highlight on this selection is Alan Breeze's rendition of the old music hall song " I Can't DO My Bally Bottom Button Up".

Wikipedia says - “Born
in Smith
Square, London,
to Joseph and Susan Cotton, Cotton was a choirboy and started his
musical career as a drummer.
He enlisted in the Royal
Fusiliers by
falsifying his age and saw service in World
War I in Malta and Egypt,
before landing at Gallipoli in
the middle of an artillery barrage. Later he was recommended for a
commission and learned to fly Bristol
Fighter aircraft.
He flew solo for the first time in 1918, the same day the Royal
Flying Corps became
the Royal
Air Force.
He was then not yet 19 years old. In the early inter-war years. he
had several jobs such as bus driver before setting up his own
orchestra, the London Savannah Band, in 1924.

At
first a straight dance band, over the years the London Savannah Band
more and more tended towards music
hall/vaudeville entertainment,
introducing all sorts of visual and verbal humour in between songs.
Famous musicians that played in Billy Cotton's band during the 1920s
and 1930s included Arthur
Rosebery,
Syd Lipton and Nat
Gonella.
The band was also noted for theirAfrican
American trombonist
and tap
dancer,
Ellis Jackson. Their signature tune was "Somebody
Stole My Gal",
and they made numerous commercial recordings for Decca.

Cotton
married Mabel E. Gregory in 1921 and they had two sons, Ted and Sir
Bill Cotton,
who later became the BBC's managing director of television. In 1962
Billy Cotton suffered a stroke.
He died in 1969 while watching a boxing match at Wembley.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

I have featured Victor Borge before I think a few years back so about time for another - this time from an EP kindly sent by a friend. It is a bit scratchy and jumps on the first side sadly but hopefully won't deter from the amusement generated.

Borge
played his first major concert in 1926 at the Danish concert-hall Odd
Fellow Palæet (The
Odd Fellow's Lodge building).
After a few years as a classical concert pianist, he started his now
famous "stand up" act, with the signature blend of piano
music and jokes. He married American Elsie Chilton in 1933, the same
year he debuted with his revue acts.Borge started touring extensively
in Europe, where he began telling anti-Nazi jokes.

When
the Nazis occupied Denmark during World
War II,
Borge was playing a concert in Sweden,
and managed to escape to Finland.He
traveled to America on the USS American
Legion,
the last neutral ship to make it out of Petsamo,
Finland, and arrived 28 August 1940, with only $20 (about $333
today), with $3 (about $49.99 today) going to the customs fee.
Disguised as a sailor, Borge returned to Denmark once during the
occupation to visit his dying mother.

Even
though Borge did not speak a word of English upon arrival in America,
he quickly managed to adapt his jokes to the American audience,
learning English by watching movies. He took the name of Victor
Borge, and, in 1941, he started on Rudy
Vallee's
radio show,but was hired soon after by Bing
Crosby for
his Kraft
Music Hall program.